Once a person starts to smoke cigarettes, it can become extremely difficult to stay away from at least one puff a day. Quitting smoking can’t be done alone. It requires the help of a combination of people including your family, friends, etc. There are so many ways to quit smoking. Depending on the receiver, different kinds of techniques may work on different people, giving various results.

Nicotine addiction can be very hard to stop, as this targets almost each organ in the body. It is a battle that has to be won physically as well as mentally. A person ought to make sacrifices and commit themselves towards the goal of quitting smoking as each step can be a struggle.

If you have been a regular smoker, then the following ways to quit smoking will work. But not all these ways will work on all types of smokers, therefore one must select the ways that will work best on them and discard the rest.

Technique 1 :

Do realise that the best way to stop smoking is to reduce consumption progressively. When the body gets used to the lesser amount of nicotine that’s taken into the body, the mind will keep asking for less too. Isn’t that great? However, if it’s only the amount of cigarettes that you lessen and still end up smoking, you wouldn’t end up with proper results.

Technique 2 :

Setting a ‘quit smoking’ date and actually quitting smoking on that day is the correct thing to do. However don’t kid yourself, setting goals and targets is hard. Give yourself some time. If you feel that you can stop earlier then change that date.

Technique 3 :

Getting the support and encouragement by the people around you is invaluable. Quitting smoking is not easy as it requires lots of time, lots of courage and determination. If you expect help from your family and friends, then be sure to keep them informed about your decision to quit smoking. They would most probably watch over you and keeping cigarette packs, ash trays, and lighters away from you. Ask them for support.

If none of the above methods worked, do not worry as there are always other ways to quit smoking. Doctors prescribe different types of medications to help flush out the nicotine out of your body. Apart from these, doctors also use different approaches such as therapy, etc in treating patients who are addicted to smoking.

Making yourself busy is another way to stay away from your smoking habit. It will keep the mind and body occupied leaves you with lesser time to think about smoking.

Although there are several ways to quit smoking, one must always keep in mind that no technique will work out if a person lacks the proper mind set, courage and determination to really quit this awful habit.

Cigarette vending machines could soon be removed from pubs and clubs across the country after MPs agreed to ban them.

An amendment to the health bill, proposed by Labour’s Ian McCartney, was passed by the Commons last night (October 12th) and could soon become law if approved in the House of Lords.

The move is designed to make it harder for children to get hold of cigarettes and was welcomed by anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).

Chief executive Deborah Arnott commented: ‘Stopping tobacco sales from vending machines has made a strong bill even stronger.

‘We wouldn’t tolerate other age-restricted products such as alcohol or knives being sold in this way.’

The British Heart Foundation’s chief executive, Peter Hollins, also welcomed the news, describing it as a ‘victory’ for the charity’s campaigners.

‘We look forward to all parties backing a new tobacco control strategy to help keep the government’s foot on the pedal on this crucial agenda,’ he added.

Today, a few newspapers reported that the smoking ban had been successful and the success has been measured in terms of reducing the number of heart attacks.
The biggest surprise in this announcement is how much decline there has been in heart attacks since the ban. It was originally expected that there would be a decrease by 10% in heart attacks but in fact heart attacks decreased by nearly a 1/3 since the ban.

Hence my rule number 1 : If you are a smoker, the single biggest thing you can do to avoid a heart attack is to give up, which could also protect the heart health of friends and family.

Heart attacks in the UK alone affect an estimated 275,000 people and kill 146,000 each year.

Big impact!
On reason for this surprise may well be second hand smoking : Second-hand smoke is thought to increase the chances of a heart attack by making the blood more prone to clotting, reducing levels of beneficial “good” cholesterol, and raising the risk of dangerous heart rhythms. The scientists leading the study found that heart attack rates across Europe and North America started to drop immediately following implementation of anti-smoking laws, reaching 17% after one year, then continuing to decline over time, with a 36% drop three years after enacting the restrictions.

Overall these findings give us evidence that in the short-to-medium-term, smoking bans will prevent a lot of heart attacks.

Another interesting piece of news was that the Latest figures show at least 70,000 lives have been saved by NHS Stop Smoking Services in the 10 years since they were established in England.

Go smoke free ! If you feel you can’t at least try e-cigarettes

I came across a post on Marijuana from a Reddit user which i thought was very informative and i reproduce it here. The post relay the user’s experience of smoking post through his your age. The post does not condemn smoking but advise that moderation is the key to enjoy smoking pot.

‘I smoked pot daily for almost 10 years starting when I was 14 years old. I struggled with it for many years, and even thought for awhile that I could not live without it.
From the time I was 14 to 22, I remember I couldn’t go to a movie without smoking out in the parking lot. I couldn’t go out to dinner with my family without sneaking a toke in the bathroom. I couldn’t go to my college classes without taking a couple hits during the drive to class. When I couldn’t afford it I would steal some from my brother. I was smoking 1/8th a week (about 50-60 dollars for the good stuff where I lived).
I remember taking huge bong rips, impressing my friends with my lung capacity. Sadly, it is not nearly the same as it once was. I remember having heart palpitations when I smoked too much, sending myself into panic attacks that didn’t remit for years. I remember developing social anxiety and struggling to make close relationships with other people. I remember my lungs aching from all the ounces and ounces I went through. A few times I even vomited when I coughed so hard from a huge hit that didn’t go down smoothly. I remember knowing that I could do something if I ‘really’ wanted to, but more often than not, not caring enough to do it because I was too stoned and feeling lazy. I sold pot to people, and nearly lost my head when my parents found out.
Marijuana was a problem, but I still didn’t have the awareness of that because I rationalized all the problems away. I could still ‘function’, managing to keep a girlfriend and get B’s and A’s in my classes at a public university. I still lived at my parent’s house, worked a part-time job, and played in a band. Life was pretty good, but deep down inside I knew something wasn’t right.
From the ages 22 to 24 I learned a little self control, mostly because I realized I wasn’t satisfied with the status quo. I found I was able to reduce my tolerance, still get high, and function ‘better’ if I smoked about 1/8th a month (which for some people is very little). I managed to get into graduate school. It was there that I learned how much pot had affected my life, and not for the better. Looking back, all those years were a haze. Sure, I remember significant events, but not with the clarity that I do now. I have friends who can quote movie lines, knowing I was there, and I can barely remember seeing the film at all. I remember significant emotional dissonance, meaning that I would feel one way about something when I was high, but feel another way entirely when I was sober. This was certainly a problem for my relationships with women. Pot was a coping strategy for a long time, anytime I was upset or needed to feel better I would smoke. I didn’t learn the necessary emotional coping skills I needed to function without it. As much as pot would make me appreciate things and make me mellow out, I found that appreciation for things is just as good sober, albeit different. I learned these things because I had to, not because I chose to.
When I first started graduate school the demands were so intense I didn’t smoke at all for 2 years. There was no way I could function and smoke at the level expected of me. Details were important, and the memory side effects of pot were too much to handle. During undergrad it was much easier, but this was a whole new realm. It wasn’t until I got a handle on my stress level and learned a thing or two about relaxation that I found I could mix things up a little.
Now I smoke about 1/4 ounce a year (~100 bucks worth) and this includes sharing with friends. Basically I smoke once a week, 1 or 2 small hits and I’m done. Just to chill. I do it at home alone relaxing or with a close group and we sit and drink wine and laugh. As many have noted, moderation is key. But it took several years to learn that. I know that many people who fall into the same habits I had don’t have the resources or self-control necessary to cope and deal with the effects of prolonged and heavy marijuana use. For many people it is a significant problem, and it is easy to rationalize all of those problems away. But sometimes I wonder, are they functioning at their full capacity? I know I wasn’t.
Moving away from my own experience, my work in the mental health field has shown me the deleterious effects of prolonged and heavy marijuana use. Generally speaking, it significantly interrupts the mind-body connection, such that people have problems integrating their thoughts with their emotions, and as a result behavior is affected. Anecdotally, it manifested with how I would feel about things when I was sober versus high, resulting in cognitive dissonance (i.e., stress). Also, it makes sense that when someone rewards their brain with feel good chemicals (such as THC), they feel less motivated to accomplish things that would incur long-term rewards. Not the case with everyone, of course… but certainly the case with more than most would admit. Our brains have hundreds of complex feedback mechanisms, and pot interrupts them on many levels.
Fortunately, I learned my lessons about heavy use, mostly out of necessity to achieve my goals. Like anything else, pot is not harmless with heavy use. But in moderation, it can add to some of the joys of life.
I’m 28 and 1 year away from my PhD in neuropsychology.’